80,000 Hours Podcast13 Nov 2017

#14 - Sharon Nunez & Jose Valle on going undercover to expose animal abuse

What if you knew that ducks were being killed with pitchforks? Rabbits dumped alive into containers? Or pigs being strangled with forklifts? Would you be willing to go undercover to expose the crime?

That’s a real question that confronts volunteers at Animal Equality (AE). In this episode we speak to Sharon Nunez and Jose Valle, who founded AE in 2006 and then grew it into a multi-million dollar international animal rights organisation. They’ve been chosen as one of the most effective animal protection orgs in the world by Animal Charity Evaluators for the last 3 consecutive years.

Blog post about the episode, including links and full transcript.

In addition to undercover investigations AE has also designed a 3D virtual-reality farm experience called iAnimal360. People get to experience being trapped in a cage – in a room designed to kill then - and can’t just look away. How big an impact is this having on users?

Sharon Nuñez and Jose Valle also tackle:

* How do they track their goals and metrics week to week?
* How much does an undercover investigation cost?
* Why don’t people donate more to factory farmed animals, given that they’re the vast majority of animals harmed directly by humans?
* How risky is it to attempt to build a career in animal advocacy?
* What led to a change in their focus from bullfighting in Spain to animal farming?
* How does working with governments or corporate campaigns compare with early strategies like creating new vegans/vegetarians?
* Has their very rapid growth been difficult to handle?
* What should our listeners study or do if they want to work in this area?
* How can we get across the message that horrific cases are a feature - not a bug - of factory farming?
* Do the owners or workers of factory farms ever express shame at what they do?

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